Nurses’ union MUMN has threatened to escalate industrial action at health centres unless a government order to stop all overtime for phlebotomists is not reversed within 48 hours.

The MUMN accused the Health Ministry’s permanent secretary, Joseph Rapa, of seeking to intentionally punish phlebotomists and said the order was a form of “illegal punishment”.

It said it expected Rapa to resign, in a statement in which it attacked the top ministry official, saying he had a “destructive attitude” and “careless approach”.

The MUMN broadside represents the latest chapter in a long-running dispute between the union and government over conditions for phlebotomists, who draw patients’ blood, and decontamination sterilization technicians.

Both categories of workers have been ordered to limit the number of patients they see every day, stop tackling waiting lists and stop outsourcing work, as part of MUMN-ordered industrial action. 

The situation has irritated doctors, who are now forced to carry out those tasks themselves to ensure patients are seen to.

“We are repeatedly being faced with directives that harm patients and this has to stop,” the Medical Association of Malta said earlier this week, insisting that the situation had to be resolved.

The MUMN says that it has been trying to reach an agreement for its members for the past 12 months, but that the government is not being fair to phlebotomists and decontamination sterilization technicians.

These workers, they say, are not eligible for allowances given to colleagues to further their professional training, and were offered a salary raise - €400 – that the MUMN deems inadequate.

It blames Rapa for much of this situation, saying he was now set on punishing workers who were following union directives by denying them overtime.

The permanent secretary should resign now, the MUMN said, as he was making “no effort to reach an agreement for the benefit of the patients and to the service.”

Rapa has been the top civil servant within the Health Ministry since 2013.